This weeks insight into the context of visual communication revolved around the history of the image itself. It is interesting to consider the modern image in the context of the first documented images. Considering the Lascaux cave paintings, these images may merely have been the outcome of a recording process, documenting sights and discoveries, or even simple leisure drawings. Either way, they assert artistic authority through their historic prominence.
The art of the everyman.
Interestingly, a point was made around the pretentious of abstract expressionism and its place in politics. Learning that the Soviet Union banned the art form as being un-relatable, I then wondered how art such as Jackson Pollocks has so much acclaim and value in the art world. The idea of socialist realism being the art of the everyman was challenged by Americans who employed Pollocks work as propaganda for freedom. The persuasive power of the images is here acknowledged as a political weapon. I then question why the cave drawings have such historical prominence if they do not have any definite purpose or meaning.
This idea of a piece of work being good art is an institutionalised concept, encouraging us to bow down to altars of culture which, questionably, are in fact glorified tourist attractions. While these works can be high quality, pioneering works of their time, the enforced hierarchies around them in galleries seems to restrict their 'class' and 'status'.
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